LIFE BEING A MUMMY & AND EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN

Author: beingmummyxo

I can’t help but feel that when a mum admits that she needs time away from her children, she has got to be the worst mother on the planet. Well I’m saying it!! I need time to myself to make me feel good so I can look after my children. Since having Charlie, without trying I have become a house recluse, when Tom goes to work I literally look after the boys, tidy the house and that is it! Sometimes I struggle to make a cup of tea for myself. Gradually I have started feeling very anxious about he smallest thing, overthinking things and worrying ALL the time. The only time the stress feeling would go from my chest is when Tom would get home from work and we were sat on the sofa relaxing.
So I finally decided to book a doctors appointment to speak to my doctor about options on maybe having some anxiety tablets. I was very reluctant to do this as I hate taking any form of tablet, it takes me about an hour of a headache to finally take paracetamol! But I thought something has got to change as I can’t go on feeling like this anymore. Someone must have been watching over me as I had a phone call the day of my appointment and the doctor who I wanted to see was off sick and I had to rebook for the week after.
So over the weekend Tom and I had a spur of the moment thing to go and join the gym around the corner. It not only has a million classes, a massive gym, swimming pool, baby swimming pool and a cafe….. But it has a cresh!! I literally nearly fell on the floor. Having a place to take your kids and not have to ask anyone or arrange a family or friend to have them is like the biggest weight being lifted from you.
Yesterday morning I woke up feeling a different women, no anxiety, no stress just excitement. So I took Frankie to his usual nursery, dropped Charlie off at the cresh and went and did my first ever yoga class. I dont think I can actually put into words how free it made me feel. I finally felt like I don’t have to sit in my four walls of a house and actually get out there and do things! The sense of freedom for me is just….. Well I can’t actually find the rite word but…. It’s good 🙂
This morning I went to a Pilates class for an hour and I still have not felt any anxiety. So if you are a mum that feels like you have been swallowed up and lost by putting your heart and soul into being a parent ( which there is nothing wrong with ) speak out about it too a friend or partner. I’m a terrible talker and keep things hidden inside but talking to My partner helped us come to the idea of joining the gym which has lead to me feeling so much better, and we never would have done it if I hadn’t of opened up.

I have never done yoga or Pilates before but they are both all about breathing and moving every little muscle in your body and it is so relaxing and reviving all at the same time. But don’t be fooled it hurts! Well it hurt me anyway probably because I’m as stiff as a board!

Maybe a gym isn’t rite for you but just know that finding even an hour a day to do something just for you can make you feel a whole lot better.
The gym we have joined is a Virgin Active chain and I think only the larger ones have a cresh but here’s the link if any of you want to have a look if there’s one near you. Have a look if there’s anything you’d love to do!
Lots of love Grace XO

Ive wanted to write this post for a while now as I have to tell you all about how fantastic this product is.

Charlie is 7 months old and I have used this every single day! The design is very subtle but so beautiful, and would fit in with any nursery style.

When charlie was a few days old and I was still breast feeding I used the feeding diary and it was sooooo helpful. You simply press the left or right button on the back when you start feeding and it will keep the time and breast side you used on the screen so you can’t forget what time you last fed…..genious!!

The temperature gage is so handy too, it simply glows red if too hot, blue if too cold and a soft white if the temperature is just perfect.

The part that I have used every day and little Charlie adores is the beautiful lullaby song. He has fallen to sleep to this song pretty much every time he’s gone to sleep and the song has become a part of or household now. It even calmes Frankie down!

This star has traveled to every house visit, hotel stay and all the way to Greece with our family and will carry on to do so.

I could not recommend this Serenity star enough. It really is a nursery room MUST have. Shop now…

Aden and Anais offer a full range of stunning baby products too which have also been a massive part of Frankie and Charlie’s growing up. Frankie still has his monkey swaddle blanket that he has had for nearly two years and Charlie can’t go to sleep without holding one of his. They are the softest and most stylish swaddle around.

I don’t actually know what I would do without this company, so if your on the look out for quality beautiful baby product then you really must visit Aden and Anais!

This brand has been a part of our lives for a while now. Most days the boys are dressed in something from this fab store.

It is very hard to find trendy fashionable clothes for little ones these days, I feel a lot of baby clothes just stick to the mundane blue for boys and pink for girls, or have a million colours all over them, which in my opinion is just ….. BORING!

But DUDE N DOLLS offer a range of stylish, monochrome pieces and the quality of each item is just beautiful.

I first came across DUDES N DOLLS through the amazing world of Instagram. It is run by a beautiful MaMa Stacie. She has the most handsome little dude called Cameron who was her inspiration behind the clothing brand. Stacie felt just like me that there was nothing trendy out there to dress him in so decided to make her own.

DUDES N DOLLS has just launched their new AW15 collection and…. WOW just Wow!! Im literally in love with every piece and my bank balance might be being affected a little, but its all just too good!

If your on the hunt for beautiful, fashionable well made clothes for your baby and toddler then look no further than DUDE N DOLLS I promise you, you will not be disappointed!

Are you sick and tired of being pale, not having enough time to tan? Well look no further than Cocoabrown tan!

I can honestly say it was the easiest and best tan I have ever used. I’d heard a lot of good reviews so thought I’m going to try it out. It took me quite a while to find actually as it is so high in demand it sells out from shops quite quickly, and after using it I can see why!

I bought the cocoa brown new dark tan shade, the chocolate whip moisturiser and also the tough stuff exfoliater. It sounds a lot of work but really wasn’t.

So I waited to put Frankie and Charlie to bed and then started.

What to do:

1) Have a shower and use the tough stuff exfoliater, especially on elbows, knees, feet and hands.

It makes your skin so soft, smells great and is pink….. What more does a girl want.

2) Dry skin, and apply the chocolate whip moisturiser. I used my mitt for this as it does have a slight brown colour to it. It smells A mazing!

3) Apply cocoa brown tan evenly with mitt.

It is a mousse tan so is so easy to apply.

4) I waited three hours, then washe’d it off in shower.

THAT IS IT GIRLS!

The whole process took me about twenty minutes to apply. After I had applied I did put a towel on the sofa just incase but apart from that I didn’t feel sticky or anything. That’s the reason why I never put fake tan on because you have to sit like a star fish for about an hour, but with this its just simple.

This was 1 hour after tanning:

This is the day after:

This is 5 days after after showering once everyday:

If you are a mummy you will know that having time to do things like this is rare so us mums need something quick and natural, and I promise this is the stuff!

So ladies if you want to have a lovely natural tan for the summer then go and grab yourself this product, it’s FAB!

What more do you want from a little girls room than soft pinks whites and greys. I am so in love with this mood board! It has such a great warm but modern feel to it and can carry the style through when your little one is growing up ♡

CIRCLE RUG ||

This gorgeous rug is the key item to this mood board! It is just beautiful! Check out there fab website for a lot more things, like little storage pots to put all your little ones things in.

The time has come that we are moving out of our house. So Charlie boy is going to have his own Nursery! I’m so excited to get in there and actually decorate. Decorating Frankie’s room was so much fun. So I thought I’d show you all my nursery and what I plan on getting for it. Frankie’s room is monochrome with a bit of random colour so with Charlie’s room I wanted to go for white, greys, mint/teal, a very light yellow and some black.

All the items I have found for it are from The wonderful world of Instagram! The amount of amazing shops that have inspired me just from Instagram is crazy.

Pintrest is also such a great platform to help you get inspiration too. Just type the key words of what you want in your nursery like, ‘ MINT NURSERY DECOR ‘ and thousands of pictures come up. Here are a few that I love:

So I’ve created a mood board of everything I’m going to get for Charlie’s room and I really think it all goes together beautifully! I just need the house to put it all in now. I will do another blog post once I’ve achieved it! So excited!

Following on from my previous post about Frankie & Charlie’s Routine, I thought I would write about my bath and bedtime part.

Bathing two babies to get them into bed for 7.30 is like a military operation!! The first time I attempted it I think I was almost in tears. So the next day I planned in my head how I would do it without making it a nightmare. So here’s how it goes down…

I pre make Charlie and Frankie’s bottle so they are ready to go after the bath. Whilst the bath is running I take Charlie upstairs, I put him on a towel and undress him on the bed so he can have a kick around with no nappie on. I then go and get Frankie and get him undressed. I get a towel for both of them into the bathroom and put their nappies and pyjamas laid out on the bed ready.

By this time the bath should be run. I have a great towel covered baby ‘thing’ ( I have no idea what to call it) from Mothercare to put Charlie on. It’s great because if Frankie moves the water doesn’t splash over Charlie’s face because he is elevated out of the water a bit.

So Charlie goes on his ‘thing’ and Frankie’s goes the other end of the bath with all his toys. I make it fun by getting Frankie to help me out with washing Charlie.

He gets his little boat, fills it with water and poures it over Charlie’s belly. This actually melts my heart. We have had a few occasions were he got a bit too excited and it’s gone over Charlie’s head but we’re learning!

I lay the two towels out on the floor and get Charlie out first wrapping him up in his towel, then I get Frank out and I encourage him to dry himself whilst I take Charlie into the bedroom and put him on the bed. Frankie usually follows me in. While I’m getting Charlie creamed and changed Frank makes a complete mess of my bedroom but it keeps him entertained for a few minutes. Then I get Frankie dressed.

By this time my partner Tom is home so I take Frankie downstairs and give him his bottle on the sofa with his Daddy.

I take Charlie’s bottle up and feed him half in a dim lit room. He usually is falling asleep by this point so I wind him, get him all swaddled and then finish the rest of his bottle. A second wind on my shoulder while he gets more sleepy and then down in his bed. I do always let him be slightly awake as I think it’s important for babies to learn how to fall asleep by themselves.

Charlie’s cot is a co sleeper called a Snuzpod and it is attached to the bed. I can zip the side up if I want or have it down so I feel close to him in the night. My favourite things to swaddle him in our his MOOBLESANDTOOBLES organic cotton blankets ( seen in the last picture of Charlie on this post) and his jungle jam ADENANDANAIS Muslin blankets.

Edit

Once Charlie is all snug I go downstairs and bring Frankie up to his room. We read a story in his reading corner ( normally the book ‘no-bot’ he is obsessed with this book at the moment) and then he always asks me to get into bed. He gives me a big cuddle and a kiss, and the minute his head hits the pillow falls asleep.

When I go to bed wether it be between 11 or 12 I give Charlie a dream feed bottle. I just lift him up and feed him about 3-4oz. I wind him on my shoulder still swaddled then put him back down and he hardly even wakes.

So that’s how my nights are filled at the moment and I wouldn’t change it for the world.

If anyone has any questions please comment or feel free to email me at beingmummyxo@outlook.com.

Stabilizing a routine with your new baby is a big enough challenge as it is let alone throwing a 23 month old into the mix too. Up until a couple of days ago I have been letting Charlie guide me with his feeds and sleeps and letting him do what he wants. He was two months old last week and I thought it was time I got a structure to my day. Remembering to do things is a lot harder when you have two, so having a routine makes your life A LOT easier. Frankie was around this age when I started his routine too. People say not to read books but I found it so helpful and read loads to get as many info as i could and then I felt like I had enough knowledge to create my own routines. Frankie thrived on his, and was sleeping from 7pm to 7am at 4 months old. I was like a crazy women with my routines, if anyone looked after him and didn’t follow it id get so upset… But it affected him so much and he would always not sleep on the nights he hadn’t followed it. A lot of mums have their on way of doing things and some may not agree with such a strict routine but I found personally that they thrive of it and it just helped me be organised and kept me sane because I was actually sleeping. I was only in boots the other week when a lovely lady that worked their stopped me to ask how old Charlie was and within twenty minutes of talking I’d written down my routine for Frankie. Her little boy wasn’t sleeping and she was finding it so hard working and not getting any sleep. I went in yesterday and her little boy has been sleeping so much better and she looked so much happier. So if this post helps one person it’s worth me writing.

Having two babies is a lot harder to juggle than one and it’s taken me two months to find my feet with it all. I am so lucky that Frankie is such a contented little guy, he makes my life a lot easier. But I also believe that the reason he is so chilled is because he had his routine from such an early age. I have had to change his routine slightly since Charlie was born because Id probably be feeding Charlie at a time that Frankie was meant to be having lunch!! Also it’s taken me a while to make sure Frankie is ok before I start to feed Charlie or change him. At first I would always give Charlie a Bottle first which would then mean I’d have Frankie crying the whole way through asking me for his bottle. So that’s definitely one bit of advice I would give any mum with a toddler and a new born, make sure you settle your toddler first before starting to feed your baby. You will enjoy it a lot more this way. ( 2 moths later I have mastered this)

I have created this table so that I can have it in my kitchen and can go to it at any point of the day if I’ve forgotten what I’m doing.

I find that it works well with the two routines and is really easy to follow and isn’t unrealistic. We’re I write ‘put to sleep in cot’ through the day if you want to go out you can just use that sleep time to go out in the pram.

Obviously some days you aren’t going to stick to this routine perfectly because life with babies is very unpredictable but it’s a good guide line to follow, but what I would stick to is the same time for a bath and bedtime routine. Making sure they wind down and go to bed at the same time everyday really helps them getting a good sleeping pattern established quicker.

My main rule that I have ALWAYS stuck to is NO SLEEP after 5… Up until bed time. I found that if Frankie ever slept over he would wake through the night or at 5 in the morning. Sometimes it’s hard when they’re fast asleep to wake them up and I know a lot of people would disagree with waking them up but they will be a lot happier baby when they’ve had a good night sleep!

when I am giving Charlie his 7.30 bedtime feed I always do it in my room with the lights on really low, I don’t make any eye contact with him at this time because it stimulates him and he finds it harder to go to sleep. His dream feed at 11 is also done like this so he doesn’t wake up to much.

So here is Frankie and Charlie’s Routine. Frankie is 23 months and Charlie is 2 months old. I will be updating with a ny changed to their routines as they grow, Please feel free to comment with any questions or if you wish to email me at beingmummyxo@outlook.com

So Easter is upon us, the time where your house gets filled with far too much chocolate for anyone to eat! Easter is such a great holiday because you can go as big or as little as you want. I’ve never really made that much of a fuss about Easter but when you have little people around it definitely makes you more excited to make an effort. We have never had a table in our house, and Easter has promted me to get one.

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I really wanted us all to have a big family meal together with fun decorations everywhere.

So the first thing I wanted to do was baskets for Frankie and Charlie. It’s been so fun finding little bits to put into the baskets. Every year months before easter, supermarket shelves are stacked high with Easter eggs and that’s all most people buy, so by the time everyone’s given the kids there egg theres no room left in the house! So I thought making a basket with not just Chocolate in it would be a bit more exciting than getting my child into a chocolate coma!

So here’s a list of all the things I’ve bought for the boys baskets and were I got them from.

Both baskets and straw shavings from eBay.

Charlie’s Basket – 7 weeks old

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Plastic bath duck – Morrisons

Duck sponge – Morrisons

Lamb teddy – Tesco

Duck teddy – Jellycat

Little Easter book – Waterstones

Baby shoes – Inch Blue

Hop Jumper – Gap

Little chick – pack of 10 from eBay

Frankie’s Basket – 23 months

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Easter sticker book – eBay

Easter books – Waterstones

Colouring book and crayons – Tesco

Bunny ears – Tesco

Green tin with bunny drippings chocolates – Tesco

Cream mug and egg – Laura Ashley

Straw nest – Tesco

Chocolate bunnies – Tesco

Carrot chocolates – Tesco

White bunny teddy – Laura Ashley

Pot of gold mini eggs – Tesco

Hop jumper – Gap

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I got this great Easter flower basket from Morrisons. It’s such an easy way to decorate your table, simple but so cute! You can’t have Easter without mini eggs! I have had to refill this glass about three times already!

I hope this has given you a bit of inspiration to make your little ones a fun Easter basket. Why not get a great Easter outfit too…. I’ve got Frankie and Charlie matching outfits, I can’t wait to see how cute they will look!